Epilogue
GIANNA
I look over at my husband as the grave digger seals the mausoleum, holding our tiny daughter in his arms. A small smile sits on his face, and I’m not even angry with him. Life is too good for that.
After Carlo and Marco both died, it took a long time to find my parents’ and Violetta’s bodies. They’d been placed in unmarked graves inside the crypt just as Carlo said, but there were many bodies in the same position. DNA testing and many months of searching through the twisted stone tunnels were necessary. The number of missing persons found was staggering.
Another month was spent constructing this mausoleum on the monastery grounds where the Gemelli family could rest in peace and glory in a place they loved. There was nothing left of my brother to bury, but he has a plaque alongside my parents. Tears stream down my cheeks, but rather than grief, it’s the relief of knowing I’ve finally done right by them.
Niko takes my hand as the sun starts to set.
“It’s time to go, princess. Little princess is tired and wants her mama.”
Our little princess Violet is two months old. So close in age to Pax and Niko’s new sister that she was likely conceived the same week Niko took me and forcefully restructured everything about our lives. It’s hard to pretend I have regrets when I look at her, light brown curls like Niko, and baby blue eyes that will shift to brown or possibly a lighter gray eventually.
The past year has been spent digging out my uncle's allies and figuring out the extent of his plans. He had been playing both my father and Alexandre for fools for years. All along, he had his own ace in the hole and planned to take this region for himself. It turns out Pax, of all people, was responsible for the ruination of his plot.
His little nun wound up being someone none of us expected, but that’s not my story to tell. We have enough family drama being the last survivors of a drawn-out blood feud. Despite our history, it’s working surprisingly well. Niko and Pax both love being a big brother, and Niko is the best dad I’ve ever seen.
He takes my hand and leads me back to the car. Armed guards are parked in front of and behind us. Since the merge in our territories, the tenuous peace we struck with Domalachego, and the birth of our daughter, Niko has been especially cautious. Part of me suspects he’s still nursing a grudge over me going with Carlo, though he won’t admit it.
He buckles Violet into her seat.
“You want to drive?”
I shake my head. Instead, I climb in the back beside our daughter and hold her tiny hand the way I wish my mother had with me.
“You’re such a beautiful princess,” I tell her. “More than enough for your mommy and daddy, always.”
I kiss her little nose and find Niko watching me in the rearview.
“You are everything I have ever wanted in life. I hope you know that,” he says.
“What about her?” I nod toward our daughter.
“She’s a bonus I was never crazy enough to hope for.”
We head back to the winery, which has doubled in size in the past year. Expanding into an extremely ambitious project that supplies wine to most of the country. We’ve scaled back on the illegal side of our business, allowing the brothels to flourish under their own management while still taking a cut and offering protection.
Domalachego bought out my father’s arms enterprise for a large sum. Since neither Niko nor I want any involvement and he’s dealing to an area outside our own, we accepted his deal and decided to mind our business. Though we are still especially careful when weapons are moving through the port.
My father fed me a lot of bullshit about the illegal movement of olive oil in and out of that same port, but it turns out the theory applies to almost anything, and we use our ships to move massive amounts of alcohol and avoid the taxes. We’ve got a rather nice scheme going with the business, just legitimized enough to cover our asses.
It turns out I don’t care for violence and high crime rates where I’m living, but I’m a Gemelli at heart, and I think I would fall over dead before I paid the appropriate taxes or did things by the book. My father simply wouldn’t stand for it, and my law degree makes it easy to manipulate the fine details while my hothead husband keeps the rest of things in line.
We arrive home, and Niko opens the door for us. I pull Violet out of her seat and carry her inside. We’re sitting at the table with a glass of wine a little while later.
“Are you still mad at me, Gi?” he asks, sounding so vulnerable for a minute. I don’t see this side of him much anymore as he’s grown into himself as a leader, husband, and father.
“For what?” I ask before I realize he’s talking about today. My parents’ burial. The fact he’s the one who killed them.
I’m quiet as I think about how to answer him. I want to give him the complete truth, but I’m still having a hard time making sense of it.
“I’m not mad at you, Niko, but part of me will always resent that you’re the one who killed them. I can’t blame you, though, when this life is everything I want. When I know it couldn’t have happened if they were still here. Maybe that makes me selfish and horrible, but I wouldn’t trade you or Vi for anything.”
He digests what I said for a moment before kissing me. He tastes like the wine we’re drinking and everything good and painful in the world. The benefit of someone being your everything.
“Are you mad at me?” I ask him. This question has weighed on me for months, but I didn’t want to rock the boat when we’ve been dealing with so much. Things have generally been good.
“For what?”
“Leaving with Carlo, lying about my uncle.” I gesture around myself to indicate all the surrounding lies that came with it.
He doesn’t need to think before he says, “No, princess, I’m not mad at you for doing what you felt like you needed to, to survive. It’s one of the things I love most about you.”
I arch my brow at him. “I thought you said that was my not giving a shit about pleasing you.”
“That too.”
I smack him on the shoulder.
“Niko, seriously.”
“Gianna, I forgive you, but if you ever try anything like it again, I won’t ever let you off the leash.”
“Maybe I’d like that,” I tease.
“I’ll think of something worse then.” A salacious glimmer flickers through his eyes, and I giggle before running from him.
He chases me down, bending me over the stairs and smacking my ass red. I’m laughing first, then whining for him in no time.
He makes quick work of pushing my skirt up and my panties aside.
“You ever going to leave me again, princess?” He hasn’t stopped asking me this question since I walked out with Carlo. At first, it was an issue of self-confidence, but now it just turns us both on to hear how tied I am to him.
“Never, never,” I chant as the thick head of his cock slides inside me. “Oh fuck, your dick is too good to leave.” He smacks me hard on my ass, surely leaving the impression of his hand and a sweet sting.
“You better stay because you love me,” he grits through his teeth.
“I love your cock,” I whine back, knowing exactly what I’m doing.
Smack. Smack. Smack. My whole ass burns.
“Who do you love?”
“Niko,” I finally yield.
Since that six weeks without sex, he’s been inside me constantly, and I’m relieved he seems to want me just as badly despite how my body has changed. He abandons my spanking, giving all of his efforts to his thrusts, and we fuck on those stairs, knowing that everything is finally where it’s supposed to be. At least for now.